Post by Nashville Predators on Jul 16, 2006 10:42:25 GMT -5
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Anyone reading his Free Agency column in today's [Sunday's] Vancouver Province will immediately want to shun him from any attempt at joining the BRHL. While he does occupy an envious job position as a sports writer for the local rag, I guess it doesn't mean he actually has to be hockey knowledgable.
In his column he describes the neads and wants for the 30 NHL clubs for the remaining fere agents. It's his anaylsis and assessments of teams and players that makes one question if he's actually followed hockey for the past few seasons...
"Brian Willsie, a 41-point player, looks like a steal at $850,000." - Give anyone a few minutes on a line with Ovechkin and they'll get a few points. Botchford makes Willsie out to be the next NHL young gun.
"They [Columbus] lost three solid forwards to free agency. Trevor Letowski went to Carolina, Mike Rupp to Nwe Jersey, and Andy Delmore to Tampa."
- Botchford seems to think that by solid it means they have played an NHL game. Letowski may be more serviceable than solid at his size while Rupp is bum. Delmore, a defenceman by the way, is even worse and has floated around the league ever since having a surprise series while with Philadelphia all those long years ago. Even calling Delmore a defenceman is a stretch as the word "defence" does not quite apply. So no, Columbus lost a servicable penalty killer and a couple dead weights. Not bad if you ask me with Zherdev, Nash, Fedorov, Brule, et al in the line up. Botchford also mentions Columbus signing "one experienced defenceman in Anders Eriksson." I'm not sure if experienced in this case is a good thing as the general concensus has been for quite some time that Eriksson is a bum and is one of the main reasons why he's been playing in Europe for the past two seasons.
"The Thrashers also landed former Stars backup goalie Johan Hedberg. He's sure to battle netminder Kari Lehtonen for playing time."
- That's like saying the Washington Capitals traded for Richard Zednik so Zednik can battle Ovechkin for playing time. Hedberg will be in Atlanta to fill in whenever Lehtonen gets injured or needs a rest but make no bones about it, Lehtonen is the #1 and is not going to be "battling" to retain that status.
"They [Washington] signed capable D-man Brian Pothier who showd promise in Ottawa."
- I don't know if capable is the word I'd use to describe Pothier as he's again more servicable than anything else. If he had a lot of promise Ottawa would have surely tried to keep him there. Though, he's likely just as good or better than most Capitals defenceman (though Eminger and Morrisonn are still the top 2, IMO).
"The Islanders got themselves a pair of aggressive, responsible defenceman in Tom Poti and Brendan Witt."
- Tom Poti is niether aggreisve or responsible... thanks for playing.
"Joining them [McCabe and Kaberle] wil be free-agent pick ups Hall Gill and Pavel Kubina. That's a slick front four...."
- More like a slick front three with a big slow lug in Hal Gill. But again, thanks for playing.
I'm probably being overly critical. I just found it amusing the adjectives used to describe some of these players. It's like here's a hat with all these cool adjectives. Pick a player, and then pick one from the hat and put them together.
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Anyone reading his Free Agency column in today's [Sunday's] Vancouver Province will immediately want to shun him from any attempt at joining the BRHL. While he does occupy an envious job position as a sports writer for the local rag, I guess it doesn't mean he actually has to be hockey knowledgable.
In his column he describes the neads and wants for the 30 NHL clubs for the remaining fere agents. It's his anaylsis and assessments of teams and players that makes one question if he's actually followed hockey for the past few seasons...
"Brian Willsie, a 41-point player, looks like a steal at $850,000." - Give anyone a few minutes on a line with Ovechkin and they'll get a few points. Botchford makes Willsie out to be the next NHL young gun.
"They [Columbus] lost three solid forwards to free agency. Trevor Letowski went to Carolina, Mike Rupp to Nwe Jersey, and Andy Delmore to Tampa."
- Botchford seems to think that by solid it means they have played an NHL game. Letowski may be more serviceable than solid at his size while Rupp is bum. Delmore, a defenceman by the way, is even worse and has floated around the league ever since having a surprise series while with Philadelphia all those long years ago. Even calling Delmore a defenceman is a stretch as the word "defence" does not quite apply. So no, Columbus lost a servicable penalty killer and a couple dead weights. Not bad if you ask me with Zherdev, Nash, Fedorov, Brule, et al in the line up. Botchford also mentions Columbus signing "one experienced defenceman in Anders Eriksson." I'm not sure if experienced in this case is a good thing as the general concensus has been for quite some time that Eriksson is a bum and is one of the main reasons why he's been playing in Europe for the past two seasons.
"The Thrashers also landed former Stars backup goalie Johan Hedberg. He's sure to battle netminder Kari Lehtonen for playing time."
- That's like saying the Washington Capitals traded for Richard Zednik so Zednik can battle Ovechkin for playing time. Hedberg will be in Atlanta to fill in whenever Lehtonen gets injured or needs a rest but make no bones about it, Lehtonen is the #1 and is not going to be "battling" to retain that status.
"They [Washington] signed capable D-man Brian Pothier who showd promise in Ottawa."
- I don't know if capable is the word I'd use to describe Pothier as he's again more servicable than anything else. If he had a lot of promise Ottawa would have surely tried to keep him there. Though, he's likely just as good or better than most Capitals defenceman (though Eminger and Morrisonn are still the top 2, IMO).
"The Islanders got themselves a pair of aggressive, responsible defenceman in Tom Poti and Brendan Witt."
- Tom Poti is niether aggreisve or responsible... thanks for playing.
"Joining them [McCabe and Kaberle] wil be free-agent pick ups Hall Gill and Pavel Kubina. That's a slick front four...."
- More like a slick front three with a big slow lug in Hal Gill. But again, thanks for playing.
I'm probably being overly critical. I just found it amusing the adjectives used to describe some of these players. It's like here's a hat with all these cool adjectives. Pick a player, and then pick one from the hat and put them together.